Why Hell is Eternal

A primary reason that Hell must be eternal is that the only condition that matters to man is the present condition. But the real reason why Hell is eternal is because at death the will will be fixed for eternity. "It is because our wills" a lost soul said "were fixed for eternity at the moment of death. We had made our final choice. Our obstinacy will never leave us." (Cry of a Lost Soul). Thus, the damned will never repent and will never cease to hate God and will never seek forgiveness for their sins even if it were granted to them, "because he [the soul] was rejected by Him [God], such a person cannot but hate Him with all the strength of his wicked will. We died with willful resolve to be separated from God. Do you now understand why hell lasts forever!" (Cry of a Lost Soul). This is the real reason why Hell must be eternal.

Is
Hell Eternal?

Seventh-day Adventists
believe that the wicked will be punished in the lake of fire, before
ultimately being destroyed. Their reading of biblical texts that are
used in support of the traditional doctrine of hell is that these
texts can be harmonized with this particular annihilationist
understanding of hell. The Seventh-day Adventist view is that these
biblical texts refer to the destructive forces that are employed and
the results of this punishment as being eternal, and not that the
wicked specifically experience conscious torment throughout eternity.

Cecil Perry, president
of the Seventh-day Adventists in England, issued a warning that Hell
should not be preached. He was responding to a report issued in April
2000 by the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom that describes
Hell as a physical place that is occupied by unrepentant sinners.
Perry took issue with that, saying, "The message of hell is in
stark contrast to the message of hope and love and tends to engender
fear" ("British Seventh-day Adventists Warn Against
'Stoking' Hell Fires," Religious News Service, April 2000).

Ellen G. White too
rejected the eternal hell and immortal soul concept as can be seen in
her book.

Ellen
White, The Great Controversy: "How repugnant to every
emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the
doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone
in an eternally burning hell. . . . And how utterly revolting is the
belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body the soul of the
impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! ... the doctrine of
natural immortality first borrowed from pagan philosophy, and in the
darkness of the great apostasy incorporated into the Christian faith,
has supplanted the truth. . . . The theory of eternal torment is one
of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abomination of
Babylon. . . . But those who have not, through repentance and faith,
secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression ... covered
with infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion. . . . There
will then be no lost souls to blaspheme God as they writhe in never-
ending torment; no wretched beings in hell will mingle their shrieks
with the songs of the saved" (The Great Controversy, pp. 469,
470, 477, 478, 483)."

Regardless of whether it
rubs uncomfortably against human reason, the Bible teaches that the
unsaved must endure eternal conscious torment. Proof for this is
found in Matthew 25:46, in which eternal life is compared to eternal
punishment in duration and state. "And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment: but the righteous unto life eternal."

The
Reality of Hell

One of the great dangers
of this century, and thus one of the great triumphs of Satan, has
been the growing disbelief in the existence of Hell. For many, Hell
has become a fable, a myth, an outdated holdover from "the Old
Testament God of fire, brimstone and judgment." Urged on by
false doctrines and a want to believe that there can be no such thing
as eternal punishment for serious wrongs "when Jesus is a God of
love and kindness," many have thrown Hell out the window –
along with concern for sin. After all, if there is no Hell, then why
need there be concern for sin? Unfortunately, they forget that "I
am the Lord and I change not" (Malachi 3:6). Hell has not
suddenly evaporated because we would prefer it so. How subtle Satan
is in these times. He increasingly tricks people into his web by
disguising its very existence. He wants you to let your guard down.
Please do not be deceived. Hell, eternal punishment for serious sins,
exists. Scripture, the Church and reports of modern-day visionaries
all confirm that Hell is a reality – never-ending reality for
those souls who must reside there with Satan and all the other damned
forever, because by their own free will and choice they rejected God
while on earth and excluded themselves from communion with Him.

The
Bible and Hell

There are over thirty
repeated references to the existence of Hell in the Old Testament
alone. For instance: "The sorrows of death have compassed me:
and the perils of hell have found me" (Psalms [D-R] 114:3). "For
the Lord Almighty will take revenge on them. In the day of judgment
he will visit them: for he will give fire and worms into their flesh,
that they may burn, and may feel for ever" (Judith 16:20 -21).
"Depart from me, come not near me, because thou art unclean:
these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning all the day"
(Isaias 65:5). "A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn
even to the lowest hell...I will heap evils upon the transgressors of
my law, and will spend my arrows among them" (Deut. 32:22-23).
"The congregation of sinners is like tow heaped together, and
the end of them is a flame of fire" (Ecclesiasticus 21:10). "He
shall be punished for all he did, and yet shall not be consumed:...he
shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him...All darkness is
hid in his secret places: a fire that is not kindled shall devour
him" (Job 20:18,22,26).

In the Gospels, Jesus
speaks of Hell more than of Heaven. In St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus
says "But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his
brother, shall be in danger of the judgment....And whosoever shall
say, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (St. Matt.
5:22). "The Son of Man shall send his angels and they will
collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all
evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there
will be wailing and grinding of teeth" (St. Matt. 13:41-42). In
St. Mark's Gospel, Jesus warns: "And if your hand causes you to
sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than
with two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire..."
(St. Mark 9:42).

A description of the
last judgment in the Book of Apocalypse clearly makes the point: "And
I saw the dead, great and small, standing in presence of the throne,
and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which was the
book of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up
the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up their dead that
were in them; and they were judged every one according to their
works. And hell and death were cast into the pool of fire. This is
the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of
life, was cast into the pool of fire" (Apoc. 20:12-15).

Jesus describes in St.
Matthew's Gospel the last judgment as His separation of the sheep
(those who loved God and neighbor) from the goats (those who did
not). To the goats, Jesus says His indictment will be: "Depart
from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels. ...And these will go off to eternal punishment, but
the righteous to eternal life" (St. Matt. 25:41,46). Jesus
Christ could not have been more clear that each of us, by our choices
and conduct, risks eternal punishment after death – Hell.

In Chapter 16 of the
Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus tells a parable on Hell. A rich man who has
died and is in Hell pleads with God to send the poor man Lazarus, who
has gone to Heaven (or Abraham's bosom), back from the dead to warn
his five brothers that Hell really exists. God replies: "If they
will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded if someone should rise from the dead." However, God is
so merciful that He has allowed certain of the damned in Hell to
return to earth to witness to others that there truly is a place of
eternal suffering – Hell – for those who disobey God and
His commandments. We will look at some of these apparitions at the
end of this article.

To deny the eternity of
Hell is a condemned heresy and is simply said to deny the Bible.

Quick Thoughts on Why Hell Must be Eternal

There is at least one
main reason why Hell must be eternal. That the pains of Hell
are eternal is, of course, part of the faith. Jesus makes that quite
clear in numerous places (Mt. 25:41; Mark 9:44). It's dogmatically
reaffirmed by the Catholic Church. Even though people know that it's
taught in the Bible, many are still deeply disturbed by the
consideration of this mind-boggling truth. They wonder how such an
unimaginable punishment could be just. In response many will bring up
the idea that an offense against Infinite Majesty (God) deserves
infinite punishment. However, we would like to consider this issue
from another angle. The following is simply our quick take on why it
makes perfect sense that the pains of Hell are eternal.

A primary reason that Hell must be
eternal is that the only condition that matters to man is the
present condition. But the real reason why Hell is eternal
is because at death the will will be fixed for eternity.
"It is because our wills" a lost soul said "were fixed
for eternity at the moment of death. We had made our final choice.
Our obstinacy will never leave us." (Cry of a Lost Soul). Thus,
the damned will never repent and will never cease to hate God and
will never seek forgiveness for their sins even if it were granted to
them, "because he [the soul] was rejected by Him [God], such a
person cannot but hate Him with all the strength of his wicked will.
We died with willful resolve to be separated from God. Do you now
understand why hell lasts forever!" (Cry of a Lost Soul). This
is the realreason why Hell must be eternal.

However, regarding the
argument that the only condition that matters to man is the present
condition. For instance, suppose you live in a frigid area of the
world. Suppose that you had heat for the past ten years, but this
year catastrophe has struck your area and left you without any heat
in the depths of winter. You are freezing, shivering, etc. Will
the fact that you had heat for the last ten years make you happy
while you are freezing this winter? No. It won't help you at all. All
that matters is that you don't have heat this winter. It's
true to say that all that matters to you is your present
condition.

Likewise, suppose that
you did not have heat for the past ten years, but finally got it this
year. Will the fact that you did not have heat last year, and the
year before, etc. make you unhappy while you sit comfortably and
warmly now? No. All that matters is that you are warm and comfortable
now. All that matters is your present condition.

The same truth applies
to everything, including to the passing pleasures desired by worldly
people. (It must be pointed out that none of these passing pleasures
can bring true happiness, for man was created for God and can only be
fulfilled in Him. But the point holds true for these matters as
well.) For instance, those who glory in their present state of great
fame or great wealth or great success or great beauty are not
troubled by the fact that they did not possess this ten or twenty
years ago. All that matters to them is that they are famous or
successful or wealthy, etc. now. All that matters to man is the
present condition.

Therefore, if the
pains of Hell did end at some point, then at that very point the
condition of the person would be free of punishment. He would suffer
no pain at all. Since all that matters to man is the present
condition, the end result would be that man would not be punished at
all.

Thus, when it is
considered deeply, it is true to say that a punishment that is not
eternal is, in the end, actually no real punishment at all. For
if it ends at any point, then the final condition of man (which is
all that will matter to him) is one without punishment.

Apparitions of the Damned from Hell

As said before, God is
so merciful that He has allowed certain of the damned in Hell to
return to earth to witness to others that there truly is a place of
eternal suffering – Hell – for those who disobey God and
His commandments. The following are a few examples of many such
occurrences – documented in the annals of private revelation.

St. Francis Jerome
and the Obstinate Sinner

In the year 1707, St.
Francis. Jerome was preaching, as was his wont, in the neighborhood
of the City of Naples. He was speaking of Hell and the awful
chastisements that await obstinate sinners. A brazen courtesan
(prostitute), who lived there, troubled by a discourse which aroused
her remorse, sought to hinder it by jests and shouts, accompanied by
noisy instruments. As she was standing close to the window, the Saint
cried out: "Beware, my daughter, of resisting grace; before
eight days God will punish you." The unhappy creature grew only
more boisterous. Eight days elapsed, and the holy preacher happened
to be again before the same house. This time she was silent; the
windows were shut. The hearers, with dismay on their faces, told the
Saint that Catherine (that was the name of the bad woman) had a few
hours before died suddenly. "Died!" he repeated. "Well,
let her tell us now what she has gained by laughing at Hell. Let us
ask her." He uttered these words in an inspired tone, and
everyone expected a miracle. Followed by an immense crowd, he went up
to the death chamber, and there, after having prayed for an instant
he uncovered the face of the corpse, and said in a loud voice,
"Catherine, tell us where art thou now." At this summons,
the dead woman lifted her head, while opening her wild eyes; her face
borrowed color, her features assumed an expression of horrible
despair, and in a mournful voice, she pronounced these words: "In
Hell; I am in Hell." And immediately, she fell back again into
the condition of a corpse.

"I was present at
that event," says one of the witnesses, "but I could never
convey the impression it produced on me and the bystanders, nor that
which I still feel every time I pass that house and look at that
window. At the sight of that ill-fated abode, I still hear the
pitiful cry resounding: 'In Hell, I am in Hell.'" With fear and
trembling work out your salvation (Philip. 2:12).

Sister Josefa
Menendez's Description of Hell

One of the greatest
mystics of this century was Sister Josefa Menendez, who died in 1923
at the age of 33. This young Spanish sister, who had a short
religious life of great suffering, experienced revelations throughout
much of her life, compiled in The Way Of Divine Love. More
than once, she was taken to Hell to witness and feel the suffering
first-hand. Sister Josefa was reluctant to write on the subject of
Hell, and did so only to conform to Our Lord's wishes. Sister Josefa
repeatedly dwelt on what she described as the greatest torment of
Hell, namely, the soul's inability to love. One of these damned souls
cried out: "This is my torture...that I want to love and cannot;
there is nothing left me but hatred and despair. If one of us could
so much as make a single act of love...But we cannot, we live on
hatred and malevolence..." (March 23, 1922).

She records, too, the
accusations made against themselves by these unhappy souls: "Some
yell because of the martyrdom of their hands. Perhaps they were
thieves, for they say: 'Where is our loot now?' ...Cursed hands...
Others curse their tongues, their eyes...whatever was the occasion of
sin... 'Now, O body, you are paying the price of the delights you
granted yourself!...and you did it of your own free will...'"
(April 2, 1922).

"I saw several
souls fall into Hell, and among them was a child of fifteen, cursing
her parents for not having taught her to fear God nor that there was
a Hell. Her life had been a short one, she said, but full of sin, for
she had given in to all that her body and passions demanded in the
way of satisfaction... [all must of course understand that
masturbation (also in marriage) is a
mortal sin that will damn an unrepentant soul or couple to eternal Hell]" (March
22, 1923).

"My soul fell into
abysmal depths, the bottom of which cannot be seen, for it is
immense. . . ; Then I was pushed into one of those fiery cavities and
pressed, as it were, between burning planks, and sharp nails and
red-hot irons seemed to be piercing my flesh. I felt as if they were
endeavoring to pull out my tongue, but could not. This torture
reduced me to such agony that my very eyes seemed to be starting out
of their sockets. I think this was because of the fire which burns,
burns. . . not a finger nail escapes terrifying torments, and all the
time one cannot move even a finger to gain some relief, not change
posture, for the body seems flattened out and [yet] doubled in two.
Sounds of confusion and blasphemy cease not for an instant. A
sickening stench asphyxiates and corrupts everything, it is like the
burning of putrefied flesh, mingled with tar and sulfur. . . a
mixture to which nothing on earth can be compared. . . although these
tortures were terrific, they would be bearable if the soul were at
peace. But it suffers indescribably. . . All I have written,"
she concluded, "is but a shadow of what the soul suffers, for no
words can express such dire torment." (September 4, 1922).

"Today, I saw a
vast number of people fall into the fiery pit . . . they seemed to be
worldlings and a demon cried vociferously: 'The world is ripe for me
. . . I know that the best way to get hold of souls is to rouse their
desire for enjoyment . . . Put me first . . . me before the rest . .
. no humility for me! but let me enjoy myself . . . This sort of
thing assures victory to me . . . and they tumble headlong into
hell.' " (October 4, 1923)

"Tonight I was
transported to a place where all was obscure. . . Around me were
seven or eight people; I could see them only by the reflections of
the fire. They were seated and were talking together. One said:
'We'll have to be very careful not to be found out, for we might
easily be discovered.'

"The devil
answered: 'Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them. . .
but keep in the background, so that you are not found out. . . by
degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline
them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to
acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite
some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them. . . As
to the remainder. . . get in through the heart . . . you know the
inclinations of their hearts. . . make them love. . . love
passionately. . . work thoroughly. . . take no rest . . . have no
pity. Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the
easier for us. . . Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of
pleasure is the door through which you will reach them . . .' "
(February 3, 1923).

The Fatima Children
Are Shown Hell

In 1917, during World
War I and that "hell on earth," the Virgin Mary appeared to
three children at Fatima, Portugal, on the 13th of the month from May
through October. During her appearance on July 13th, 1917, she showed
these three young children, ages 7 to 10, a vision of Hell. Lucia,
the oldest of the three children, relates that the Blessed Virgin
Mary opened her hands, and "rays of light seemed to penetrate
the earth, and we saw, as it were, a sea of fire. Plunged in this
fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning
embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the
conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from
within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling
back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or
equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which
horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this
sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The
demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent
likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like
burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for help, we looked up at
Our Lady, who said to us so sadly: "You have seen Hell where the
souls of poor sinners go. Thus, when you say the rosary, say after
each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires
of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need
of Thy Mercy." After this vision, the children lived dramatic
lives of sacrifice and penance so that sinners might be converted and
saved from the fires of Hell that God had shown them through His
heavenly Prophetess.

Boy Raised from the
Dead by St. John Bosco

A fifteen-year-old boy
in Turin was about to die. He called for Don Bosco, but the saint was
not able to make it in time. Another priest heard the boy's
confession and the boy died. When Don Bosco returned to Turin, he set
out at once to see the boy. When told that the boy was dead, he
insisted that it was "just a misunderstanding." After a
moment of prayer in the room of the dead child, Don Bosco suddenly
cried out: "Charles! Rise!" To the utter amazement of all
present, the boy stirred, opened his eyes, and sat up. Seeing Don
Bosco, his eyes lit up.

"Father, I should
now be in Hell!" gasped the boy. "Two weeks ago I was with
a bad companion who led me into sin and at my last confession, I was
afraid to tell everything . . . Oh, I've just come out of a horrible
dream! I dreamt I was standing on the edge of a huge furnace
surrounded by a horde of devils. They were about to throw me into the
flames when a beautiful Lady appeared and stopped them. 'There's
still hope for you, Charles,' she told me. 'You have not yet been
judged!' At that moment I heard you calling me. Oh, Don Bosco! What a
joy to see you again! Will you please hear my confession?"

After hearing the boy's
confession, Don Bosco said to the boy, "Charles, now that the
gates of Heaven lie wide open for you, would you rather go there or
stay here with us?" The boy looked away for a moment and his
eyes grew moist with tears. An expectant hush fell over the room.
"Don Bosco", he said at last, "I'd rather go to
Heaven." The mourners watched in amazement as Charles leaned
back on the pillows, closed his eyes, and settled once more into the
stillness of death.

The Old General and
The Count

In Russia shortly before
the horrible military campaign between Napoleon and Russia in 1812,
two high-ranking military men, one a Count and the Military Governor
of Moscow and the other a General, were scoffing over drinks about
the existence of God, life after death and Hell. They made a mocking
"pledge of honor": if there were a Hell, the first there
would come to inform the other of it. A few weeks later, the General
departed for the front. One morning, while the Count was lying in
bed, the General suddenly appeared before him, pale, with his right
hand on his breast, declaring: "What do we do now? There is a
Hell and I am there! What do we do now?" He then disappeared.
The Count ran to friends, eyes wild, hair on end, and exclaimed what
had just happened. Two weeks later, word was received in Moscow that
the General had died in battle – on the same day and at the
very hour he appeared to the Count. He had kept his word of honor:
Hell exists.

The Young Lord and
His Mistress

In London during the
winter of 1847-1848, a wealthy young widow in her late 20's suddenly
found herself in an illicit relationship with a young lord. Late one
night as she was falling asleep, a glimmer of light started to grow
and expand at her door. To her astonishment the door started to
slowly open, and there was the young lord. He approached, grabbed her
left wrist, and hissed: "There is a Hell." The pain in her
wrist was so great she lost consciousness. When she came to, she had
a terrible burn into her wrist down to the bone. The carpet also was
scorched where his footsteps had come and gone. The next day she
learned that the night before, her lord had been found drunk and had
died in his servants' arms. She apparently lived the rest of her life
with her charred scar as a reminder.

A Soul From Hell

A widow who was a sleazy
slumlord and porno dealer for 30 years became a God-fearing pillar of
society overnight – after her husband paid her a visit from
Hell! "I'm a changed woman," trembling Sophia Neri, 53,
told reporters in Rome, Italy. "I've had a glimpse of Hell
through my husband's eyes, and I'll do anything to keep from joining
him there."

Before her eerie
encounter, the widow operated a small empire of rat-infested slum
apartments outside Rome and ran an underworld porno ring that
produced magazines for sale overseas. "My husband Sal and I ran
the business together before he died last year," Sophia
recalled. "We lived in style, but we were living off the misery
and appetites of others. After Sal died, I took over the entire
operation myself and was pleased with the life I was leading."

But all that changed the
day Sal appeared in Sophia's bedroom. His eyes burning like coals.
"He stood before me a shrunken, broken soul, so different from
the cocky, confident man I knew for 30 years," the reformed
porno queen told reporters. "He told me he had been condemned to
a life in Hell. He said it was far worse than anything he had
imagined – and he warned me I would be joining him there if I
didn't mend my ways. 'To live in Hell is to have a body that is
constantly on fire,' he said. Then he pressed the palm of his hand
against a heavy wooden door and his palm burned into the wood like a
branding iron. A moment later he vanished leaving his handprint
behind as a reminder of his warning. But believe me, that terrifying
message burned itself into my mind as clearly as his handprint had
burned into the door. I wasn't about to forget."

That night, Sophia
visited a priest to confess her sins and beg for forgiveness. "She
took me to her home and showed me the handprint on the door"
[now at the Purgatorial Museum in Rome], said Father Angelo Macchi.
"After seeing that and hearing her story, I have no doubt her
husband paid her a visit from Hell." The next day, the shaken
lady disbanded her illegal pornography operation and began turning
her run-down tenement into luxury apartments, which she gave to the
city to be used as low-rent housing for the poor.

"Sophia made a full
confession of her activities to the police," Father Macchi said.
"But so far nothing has come of it because she is living the
life of a model citizen. She has given her money to charity and lives
in a tiny apartment right next door to my church. She is a woman who
truly [or apparently so, and so we hope] has found God – and probably
just in the nick of time."

Revelations of St.
Teresa of Avila, Mystic

"While I was at
prayer one day, I found myself in a moment, without knowing how,
plunged apparently into Hell. I understood that it was Our Lord's
Will that I should see the place which the devils kept in readiness
for me, and which I had deserved by my sins. It lasted but for a
moment, but it seems to me impossible that I should ever forget it
even if I were to live many years.

"The entrance
seemed to be by a long narrow pass, like a furnace, very low, dark,
and close. The ground seemed to be saturated with water, mere mud,
exceedingly foul, sending forth pestilential odors, and covered with
loathsome vermin. At the end was a hollow place in the wall like a
closet, and in that I saw myself confined. All this was ever pleasant
to behold in comparison with what I felt there. There is no
exaggeration in what I am saying.

"But as to what I
then felt, I do not know where to begin if I were to describe it; it
is utterly inexplicable. I felt a fire in my soul but such that I am
still unable to describe it. My bodily sufferings were unendurable. I
have undergone most painful sufferings in this life, and, as the
physicians say, the greatest that can be borne, such as the
contraction of my sinews when I was paralyzed, without speaking of
other ills of different types – yet, even those of which I have
spoken, inflicted on me by Satan; yet all these were as nothing in
comparison with what I then felt, especially when I saw that there
would be no intermission nor any end to them.

"These sufferings
were nothing in comparison with the anguish of my soul, a sense of
oppression, of stifling, and of pain so acute, accompanied by so
hopeless and cruel an infliction, that I know not how to speak of it.
If I say that the soul is continually being torn from the body it
would be nothing – for that implies the destruction of life by
the hands of another – but here it is the soul itself that is
tearing itself in pieces. I cannot describe that inward fire or that
despair, surpassing all torments and all pain. I did not see who it
was that tormented me, but I felt myself on fire, and torn to pieces,
as it seemed to me; and I repeat it, this inward fire and despair are
the greatest torments of all.

"Left in that
pestilential place, and utterly without the power to hope for
comfort, I could neither sit nor lie down; there was no room. I was
placed as it were in a hole in the wall; and those walls, terrible to
look on of themselves, hemmed me in on every side. I could not
breathe. There was no light, but all was thick darkness. I do not
understand how it is; though there was no light, yet everything that
can give pain by being seen was visible.

"Our Lord at that
time would not let me see more of Hell. Afterwards I had another most
fearful vision, in which I saw the punishment of certain sins. They
were the most horrible to look at, but because I felt none of the
pain, my terror was not so great. In the former vision Our Lord made
me really feel those torments and that anguish of spirit, just as if
I had been suffering them in the body there. I know not how it was,
but I understood distinctly that it was a great mercy that Our Lord
would have me see with my own eyes the very place from which His
compassion saved me. I have listened to people speaking of these
things and I have at other times dwelt on the various torments of
Hell, though not often, because my soul made no progress by the way
of fear; and I have read of the diverse tortures, and how the devils
tear the flesh with red-hot pincers. But all is as nothing before
this. It is a wholly different matter. In short, the one is a
reality, the other a description; and all burning here in this life
is as nothing compared with the fire that is there.

"I was so terrified
by that vision – and that terror is on me even now as I write –
that though it took place nearly six years ago, the natural warmth of
my body is chilled by fear even now when I think of it. And so, amid
all the pain and suffering which I may have had to bear, I remember
no time in which I do not think that all we have to suffer in this
world is as nothing. It seems to me that we complain without reason.
I repeat it: this vision was one of the grandest mercies of God. It
has been to me of the greatest service, because it has destroyed my
fear of trouble and of the contradictions of the world, and because
it has made me strong enough to bear up against them, and to give
thanks to Our Lord who has been my Deliverer, as it now seems to me,
from such fearful and everlasting pains.

"Ever since that
time, as I was saying, everything seems endurable in comparison with
one instant of suffering such as those I had then to bear in Hell. I
am filled with fear when I see that, after frequently reading books
which describe in some manner the pains of Hell, I was not afraid of
them, nor made any account of them. Where was I? How could I possibly
take any pleasure in those things which led me directly to so
dreadful a place? Blessed forever be Thou, O my God! And oh, how
manifest is it that Thou didst love me much more than I did love
Thee! How often, O Lord, didst Thou save me from that fearful prison!
And how I used to get back to it contrary to Thy Will.

"It was that vision
which filled me with very great distress which I felt at the sight of
so many lost souls, especially of the Lutherans – for they were
once members of the Church by Baptism – and also gave me the
most vehement desires for the salvation of souls; for certainly I
believe that to save even one from those overwhelming torments, I
would willingly endure many deaths. If here on earth we see one whom
we specially love in great trouble or pain, our very nature seems to
bid us compassionate him; and if those pains be great, we are
troubled ourselves. What, then, must it be to see a soul in danger of
pain, the most grievous of all pains, forever? It is a thought no
heart can bear without great anguish. Here we know that pain at last
ends with life, and that there are limits to it, yet the sight of it
moves us so greatly to compassion; that other pain has no ending, and
I know not how we can be calm when we see Satan carry so many souls
daily away.

"This also makes me
wish that, in a matter which concerns us so much, we did not rest
satisfied with doing less than we can do on our part – that we
left nothing undone. May Our Lord vouchsafe to give us His Grace for
that end."

Conclusion

Dear fellow Christians,
Father Lombardi, in his public debate with Italian Communist leader
Velio Spano in Cagliara on December 4, 1948, stated, "I am
horror-struck at the thought that if you continue in this manner, you
will be condemned to hell." Spano replied, "I do not
believe in hell." Father Lombardi replied, "Precisely, and
if you continue, you will be condemned; for to avoid being condemned,
one must believe in hell." Hell is a grave reality that is
easily forgotten in today's Godless and apathetic society. This is
all the more reason why we should fear for our salvation and do all
that we can to make sure that we are one of the elect. St. Leonard of
Port Maurice said, "To be saved for all eternity, to be damned
for all eternity, and to not make your every effort to avoid the one
and make sure of the other, is something inconceivable." Do not
let your life pass before it is too late; focus on saving your soul
to the exclusion of all other unnecessary things, lest you find
yourself forever in the eternal fires after your judgment.

To deny the
eternity of Hell is heresy and is simply said to deny the Bible.

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"And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42